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Battle of Karsol
The Battle of Karsol was a massive battle between Karsian and Reclaimer forces in dominance over the border world. Here, a massive war of attrition would consume the lives of millions for little ground, both sides unable to break through each others lines until the very end of the war where reinforcements from allied worlds manage to arrive to reinforce the heavily mauled Karsian Military and defeat the Travesti invasion force. By war's end, Karsol's northern coast would be utterly devastated and take years to rebuild. The Battle Invasion The Travesti fleet, which spearheaded the invasion, devastated a large portion of the Karsian fleet in orbit by arriving relatively close to the 1st and 2nd Karsian Fleets. Immediately, the Karsian fleet defending were desieged and at such close-range, most of the Karsian warships were destroyed before doing considerable damage. Immediately the remains of both fleets were forced to pull out. The space station known as Guardian would be destroyed, but not before overloading its reactor to destroy those Travesti vessels that had strayed too close. Shortly after their victory, the Travesti began to deploy forces en mass towards the northern tip of Karsol and already, cities were decimated in an instance as the Travesti began a furious advance towards the capital of Valour leaving destruction in their wake. Hydra League forces would follow shortly after, securing newly conquered ground and fighting off guerilla and military units that had survived the initial onslaught that now had retreated into the interior. The only thing that could hold back the tide was the Karsian Airforce as sorties of Ultimatum Heavy Carpet Bombers escorted by dozens of A-20 Fighter-Bombers scattered enemy formations, but the Travesti had both numbers and surprise, much of the Karsian Military still reeling from such destruction caused in the north. It was not long until the Travesti had reached Valour and began to devastate the city, but not before the prime minister and most of the high-ranking commanders had relocated to the south. Deadlock Valour quickly fell, but the Karsians fought on with a massive counter-attack to stabilize the ever-losing front. If the Travesti were to breach into the south any further, it would spell the end of the war for the Karsians. Tanks, artillery, aircraft, infantry and even the newly created Fallschirmjager regiments were deployed to stem the tide. Everything was thrown at the invaders to buy more time for reinforcements from the Empire to arrive as well as to build fortifications lay traps should the enemy breach the current front. Casaulties for the Karsian's would be heavy in these engagements, but they would cost the Travesti advance dearly. The so-called 'Indestructable Fortresses' that the Travesti was known for soon became a myth due to their size and slow speed made them vulnerable to barrages, long-range tank bombardments and massive bombing runs which stopped the Travesti from steam-rolling through Karsian defenses. Soon the war on the ground simply became a back and forth battle with ground being taken but the swiftly lost. In space, however, the matter was completely different. The remains of the Karsian fleet, after a series of defeats, would take up positions around Karsol Space Station for the majority of the war, giving the Travesti forces complete control of the surrounding space, moons and orbit, but unable to launch orbital bombardments at the southern part of the continent due to the anti-orbital cannons and the remains of the Karsian fleet that was backed by the guns of the Karsol Space Station. Incoming Storm The bunker of the Prime Minister would be located and breached on the 27th of October by Reclaimer forces using infilitrators that had been in position for weeks once they had gotten past Karsian lines. This was done in hopes of crushing the Karsian morale and gaining valuable intelligence on all Karsian plans through that bunker for it had access to all information regarding military operations and positions. The remaining Hydra League forces saw this as their last chance to do something meaningful, many Hydra League soldiers were fed up with the current stalemate and many would have likely deserted or betrayed if it were not for the Travesti being given overall command and none dared to oppose them. The destruction of Brimstone had been intentionally kept from these soldiers to keep them fighting the Empire. A brief firefight would break out that would see the Prime Minister relocated to a new bunker, but it would tell the Reclaimer-Hydra Alliance of treaties and alliances that would be providing Karsol additional reinforcements from various factions giving them time to prepare. The Travesti themselves, though being whittled away, continued to throw themselves at the Karsian lines, grinding them down with sheer attrition as those higher-up on the chain of command of the massive, blood-thirsty sentients knew the full power of the technology the Reclaimers had given them, allowing them an endless supply of soldiers and with access to the surrounding system, material to continue waging war. It seemed only inevitable that the Karsian lines would break and the war would be over before allies could reach the planet in time. Operation Breaker Operation Breaker, launched on November 14th, was an attempt by the Hydra League and the Travesti to breakthrough the deadlock. The Travesti would focus their entire offensive at the western Karsian defensive line while Hydra League forces would emerge from the interior near the same line in one overwhelmning strike with the entire support of the fleet above. The Reclaimer-Alliance would see significant progress, forcing all Karsian armies on that front to fallback to the southern cities and forcing additional forces to shift to reinforce the western line which became known as the Guardian Line for if this line failed, there would be nothing to defend the cities of Zakara, Lomos, Ikira and Ophis. The Northern Storm On Novemeber 17, a battlegroup from the Northern Federation would arrive. Their fleet would engage the Travesti fleet head-on with support from the remaining Karsian warships as the Reclaimer-Hydra Alliance pushed towards Karsol Space Station to prevent incoming reinforcements. Hundreds of landing craft would be deployed to the surface of Karsol and landed directly behind the Karsian defensive lines before Northern Federation forces would push forward against the enemy. The columns of armour and infantry did well at initially pushing the Travesti back who reeled back from the sudden surge of reinforcements, but their lines quickly stabilized, falling back on the Hydra League defenses that had been hastily constructed in the wake of the operation. With new allies and a sudden surge of reinforcements at their side, the Karsians were now able to swiftly reinforce weakened and unstable flanks and immediately Federate commanders began thinking on the offensive, knowing that they would need to break through the Reclaimer-Alliance lines if they were to have any chance of saving Karsol. Old Allies Imperial forces that were stationed close to the Kars system would finally give into diplomatic talks and weeks of neogitiations, being persauded to join in on the fight. As the threat of the Travesti was high and no longer were Imperial forces bound to the words of their King, Imperial fleets arrived into the combat zone on November 19th to deliver additional forces and supply into battle, pushing the Travesti back even further who were finding themselves increasingly outnumbered and unable to deal with three seperate armies. Operation Iron Storm On November 27th, a major offensive was made by the Karsian-Federation Alliance consisting of several army groups meant to make a push and retake the remains of the capital. The Karsians were to punch through the heaviest line of defense while the Northern Federation were to attack from the west and east of the Karsian advance, to encircle the enemy and cut them off. With heavy artillery, air support, and series of jamming signals throughout the Travesti battle network which had been recently hacked thanks to Spetsnaz/ICDT units obtaining key code fragments from destroyed fortress, the Karsian advance, though met with heavy resistance, managed to break through key areas of the enemy lines and drew out the majority of the Travesti fortresses to their location. To the west and east, Northern Federation forces flooded through the weakened enemy positions a day later after the Karsians had forced the Reclaimer-Hydra Alliance to pull forces to stop the Karsian advance. There was far too little left to defend and additional reinforcements were still en route. Rather than lose the armies in the field due to encirclement, the Hydra League and Travesti began to steadily withdraw back to their original positions they had obtained since the stalemate at Valour. Orbital guns were used to stall the enemy advance while fortresses thought to be destroyed were reactivated and used as powerful turrets and defensive positions to stall the enemy. By the end of November, the lines that were in previously in place since August 30th were back to where they once were and still, no clear end was in sight for either side. The Bloody Holiday Massacre On December 3rd, a holiday celebrated by all of Karsol, the Travesti unleashed a new strategy to break through the the Karsian line: employ the dead as shields through use of a variety of plague weapons. The tactic was simple, force the Karsians and the Federation soldiers to use up ammunition. Though it did not sound effective in practice, it proved to be critical in grinding down the dwindling ammunition the Allies had. The repurposed husks kept coming, overwhelming the first-line of defenders and forcing reserves to reinforce the line, showing the Travesti what the two allies had been holding in reserves. When the majority of the reserves showed up to hold back the relentless tide of the dead, that was when the Travesti committed their entire force, throwing everything they had at the defensive lines with full-on fleet support, giving little thought to the anti-orbital cannons that could no longer maintain the rate of fire they previously had due to the lack of ammunition. The offensive was utterly devastating, wiping out whole companies at a time as the fortresses closed in on the defensive lines, advancing across the sea of dead husks and from the skies, launched from orbiting crusiers in space. There was little the Karsians, Imperials or the Federation could do to be prepared against this kind of onslaught, but they remained on the field, refusing to give ground. Breaks in the defender's defensive line appeared due to the endless Travesti onslaught with the defenders throwing what they could to stop the Travesti. It would cost them dearly to hold what ground they had while the Travesti still had troops to lose. By the end of the day, over fifty-percent of the defender's forces were destroyed, yet the fighting would continue for another full week, though the slaughter that had happened on December 3rd would remain the fiercest throughout the entire war. Sinner's Plains By this point in the war, the Reclaimer and Hydra League forces were considered to be more of a hindrance to the Travesti who held high contempt for them as they did with most other sentient races. It would be on December 5th, not long after the Bloody Holiday Massacre that the Travesti would begin to turn on their former allies causing massive casualties before any preparation could be made. This resulted in the Hydra League and Reclaimer forces being reduced to one-sixth of their original fighting strength whereas before, they still had over three-fourths of their army remaining thanks to the Travesti having been the most committed to the fighting. New of this would spread quickly across the galaxy and on Karsol itself, the non-Travesti Reclaimers left began to turn against the xenphobic aliens, causing what havoc they could with their remaining forces. A New Tactic Seeing the futility of continuing offensives and counter-offensives along the main front to an enemy that could not be worn down, the Karsians decided they must finally redeploy their forces and attempt to encircle the Travesti and remaining Hydra League troops in a massive offensive which would require secrecy and preparation to even attempt. It would be on December 27th, four days before the Kahada Union would arrive that the Karsians and their allies set forth a massive operation, mainly to put pressure on the Travesti and prevent them from launching another major offensive. To do this, entire army groups would attack out from the previously under-utilized interior of Karsol's single continent and from the sea, landing on the northern coast. As this operation was hastily done and planned, the alliance stretched their supplies to the limit and many under-strength units were deployed, but it was enough to surprise the Travesti who had been so used to the enemy facing them in head-on assaults. Their forces were spread thin to deal with these mutliple army groups and by the time the Kahada Union arrived, they would find there would be clear drop-sites in the northern part of the continent allowing them to deliver troops directly to the front, continuing to place pressure on the enemy. For once in the entire war, the Karsians were regaining lost ground past the city of Valour. End in Sight By this point, the leading the Travesti leaders began to decide it was time for them to withdraw to a new defensible world and launch new offensives from there. They were unwilling to lose their entire force and with what was supposed to be a swift victory turning into an endless battle of attrition that now they could no longer compete with, Travesti forces began to slowly leave Karsol and to regroup with other fleets to Phyrris Falls where they would hold out until 98AF where their power in the North-Eastern Fringe was finally broken and causing them to retreat to what had once been the Kitsune League. As the Travesti began to slowly leave Karsol in a fighting retreat, the war begun to die down leaving the Karsians with depopulated world and one that would require years of recovery before it would be back to the way things were before the war. Aftermath Karsol would survive the war, but large sections of the coast would be devastated with the northern cities having been reduced to ash with much of its population effectively cutting the population in half. It would take years to rebuild and only the refugees flooding to the planet in the post-war period allowed the population count to rise back to pre-war levels. The fact the Travesti left rather than fight to the bitter end saw such a victory bittersweet and would result in the Karsians having an intense hatred for the alien invaders who one day hope to wipe the Travesti from the galacy like many others. Category:Events Category:Conflicts